It didn’t take very long for Ken Livingstone’s “Fare Deal” campaign to unravel. Fact Check – often cited by Labour sorts as the be all and end all of statistical disputes, is damning:

Mr Livingstone is wrong to claim there’s a £729m surplus, and there is no separate budget for investment projects. If he cuts fares, TfL expects to lose £1.12bn in income from fares – and that’s a hole he wouldn’t be able to plug without hitting the day-to-day funding for London’s transport or taking money from investment projects.

How he’d do that is up to him, but it could mean that tube and bus route upgrades are delayed, or TfL could be forced to shed some staff members. Any mayoral candidate can raid the TfL’s coffers to cut fares. But cutting fares could mean cutting investment – which London’s transport system has been sorely starved of for decades. Investing money to bring it up to speed only began in earnest under the last Labour government.

So with one pillar of his campaign in pieces, Ken is on the attack this week. Here is his latest devastating attack ad:

That was officially put out by the campaign. It even comes with powerful “Boris Johns-hen”Twitter account. Game changing stuff…

GuidoFawkes Quote of the Day

“I read more bloggers now than mainstream columnists, because they’ve got more interesting things to say. Too many columnists today make you think, ‘Yeah, I think you’ve said that 10 times before and I’ve just noticed your column has not go a single fact in it’”.